VMware, Cisco and Microsoft top the list of customers’ go-to vendors for software-defined infrastructure (SDI) capabilities, as digitally aware businesses open the enterprise cheque books.

Data from 451 Research’s latest Voice of the Enterprise survey indicates that 67 percent of enterprises will increase spending on SDI in 2016, resulting in a 14.4 percent increase in overall spend.

SDI involves the virtualisation of all hardware resources, combined with elastic scaling and management automation - realised via the implementation of multiple technologies and products.

Though server virtualisation has been and remains the customary starting point for most enterprises, additional software-defined approaches have emerged in recent years, including software-defined networking (SDN) and software-defined storage (SDS).

In addition, the majority of respondents to the study (65 percent) cited improved agility and flexibility as the top benefit of SDI.

“As every business becomes a digital business, decision-makers are looking to improve both the efficiency and effectiveness of their overall IT environment; this is encouraging decision-makers to explore new IT delivery models,” says Simon Robinson, Vice President of Research, 451 Research.

According to findings, about 37.4 percent and 26.9 percent of enterprises are increasing spending on Software-defined networking (SDN) and software-defined storage (SDS) respectively, versus less than three percent planning to curb budget allocations for these two technologies.

In terms of vendors, Robinson says VMware (66.3 percent), followed by Cisco (39.2 percent) and Microsoft (28.1 percent) standout as lead vendors in SDI.

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